All your concerns are perfectly addressed in this mobile app, developed by three child-birth and fitness experts.Having a baby is amazing. But let’s face it: becoming a mom for the first time is not as great as they show in baby powder ads and the fact is moms-to-be around the world are an anxious lot. And no, the all-knowing gynecologists won’t be so patient with your ‘borderline-stupid’ queries.
Now, don’t freak out: just visit Google Playstore and download ‘I love 9 months.’ All your concerns are perfectly addressed in this mobile app, developed by three child-birth and fitness experts, viz., Ganga, Anjaly and Suma.
Apparently, the idea to create an app was born of a usual 4 o’clock conversation, where Anjaly, her mother and sister discussed about fitness and sanity concerns during pregnancy. A child-birth and lactation educator, Anjaly took forward the idea with support of her mother Ganga, who is a fitness consultant, and her aunt Suma, who is an audiologist and speech pathologist.
“Over the last few years, there have been an increase in the number of resources with information regarding pregnancy and child birth. But we noticed that none of those focus on the 'fitness' element,” says Anjali.
“For I love 9 months, empowering women means providing them with all the resources required to have a fit and healthy pregnancy. It’s a wholesome product in the realm of childbirth as it addresses your queries right from the time you plan to have a kid until postpartum wellness.
“The information explosion has cast loads of data on your fingertips regardless of the credibility of the sources. Our aim is to equip pregnant women of the nation with right, relevant and customized information on a timely basis,” says Suma.
Team 'I love 9 months' envisions a healthy mother and baby. Though pregnant women in India are now more aware about the importance of prenatal fitness, there are many social stigmas and taboos that prevent them from seeking it, observes Ganga.
“Most of the cultural practices are designed with a generalized outlook, and so they wouldn’t always suit specific individual necessities and physical conditions. We look forward to bridge this wide gap between prevalent generalized cultural taboos and personalized information sources,” says the fitness consultant, who believes accessing information about a physical condition is always the first step in eliminating myths and misconceptions around it.
Unlike other mobile applications, which provide customized data on menstruation, pregnancy, ovulation, fertilization and conception, 'I love 9 months' is not exclusively a tool for women. It is a platform for the family to share their concerns and joy while they are expecting the baby. It suggests workouts and diet patterns based on the physical conditions shared by users. It suggests physical and mental exercises to prevent conditions such as prenatal depression and postpartum disorders.
Much like Suma says, wellness is not about individual health. It is all about creating a happy environment within the family so that a pregnant woman is physically, mentally and emotionally fit.
“We are aware that a mobile application is never an inclusive, wholesome tool in a country like India,” says Anjali. “Yet, the expansion of data networks and the surging number of mobile users in the nation is indeed a hopeful phenomenon. We are planning to take our tool down to the grassroots level through awareness campaigns, study classes, fitness camps and infotainment programs.”
Training women as birth-support companions and lending pregnancy-related services at doorstep is another well-visioned plan team 'I love 9 months' nurtures. The mobile application is available for free download on Google Playstore and iStore.
